Doctor Who, Anime, Films and More!

Film

It was hard to pick a 90s sci-fi film for my decades marathon, given the key part of the title being “haven’t seen”, as having been born in the mid-80s I grew up on 90s films, be it at the cinema or flicking around on the TV. I ended up choosing Total Recall as I knew at some point I’d caught the film half-way through, and I’m pretty sure I’d seen bits of the start somehow or another, but I’d never sat down and watched it from start to finish. Turns out that this was a rather important part, more so than a lot of films…

I really enjoyed the first two seasons of Bung Stray Dogs, so I don’t really know why it’s take me this long to sit down and watch the movie, especially as it’s streaming on Crunchyroll and therefore not even costing me anything extra. So, apart from having a title that any non-anime fan would just look blankly at, what does Bungo Stray Dogs – Dead Apple have to offer? Well…

They Live is a strange experience. On the one hand it wears its anti-commercialism message on its sleeve, and on the other it’s an unashamed cheesy action/sci-fi movie with funny quips and insults everywhere. One thing’s for sure though: it’s a good laugh, and Roddy Piper is surprisingly good in the lead role too (not that it’s the most complex part in cinema history…) So let’s have a look at the 1980s entry into the 10 Decades, 10 Sci-Fi films marathon…

We reach the 1970s in the Sci-Fi films “10 Decades” marathon, and with it we reach another film where I’ve seen / heard it mentioned or parodied so much I wanted to finally watch it. Soylent Green is a dystopian story set in 2022 New York, where over-population has caused a greater divide between the rich and poor, and global warming has made the weather constantly muggy and unpleasant… Probably closer to how a lot of the world will be like in four years’ time than we’d all like, really… Anyway, enough current day political bollocks, let’s have a look at the film in question!

Ant-Man, the original film, was one of my favourites from the MCU. It was legitimately funny, had a simple but enjoyable plot and good characters, so when Ant-Man and the Wasp was announced I was looking forward to it… then the trailers drop, and some early reviews came out, and I decided that it sounded fun but probably wasn’t worth the price of a bus and cinema ticket on top of the Blu-ray I’d inevitably buy, and I was right! It was a fun film, but not amazing and lacking in consequence… Let’s take a closer look!

I had the rare pleasure of a secret stream review for Anime UK News, in this case it was a screening of My Hero Academia: Two Heroes, the first film for the franchise that is debuting in UK cinemas this week. The review can be found HERE.

While MHA is very much a Japanese voice kind of series for me (mainly because that’s how I’ve always watched it via Crunchyroll) I didn’t mind that the stream was the dub version only, as it was surprisingly competent given it had so many teen characters in it…

You know all those episodes of shows where people get shrank down and go around the inside of a human body? Well, this is what they’re all, in some way, based off of. That’s why I chose it for the 60s entry in the “Sci-Fi films I haven’t seen” decades marathon. It’s another one of those “seen it parodied so much I wanted to see the original” kind of things. So, beyond its importance to science fiction in general, is it still fun to watch, now in 2018? Well…

It’s my 500th published review! Between Anime UK News, this (two-part) blog and a few oddities, this is review #500, and boy is that a weird thing. So, how to celebrate? Well, I couldn’t really think of anything major after blowing my first written review ever on celebrating 200 reviews, so I thought I’d review a childhood favourite as a fun one-off. Action Force: The Movie, known pretty much every where else as “G.I. Joe: The Movie” (but this is me nostalgically looking back, so screw that!), is an odd one. It takes the often more… I hate to say realistic, but the more… grounded idea of an international force trying to stop a terrorist group and turns it into pure science fiction. A lot of people hate it for that reason, but I can’t do anything other than love it… and here’s why!

It’s the 1950s and we already have our first colour film in this “10 Decades” marathon. Forbidden Planet has been on my mental “to watch” list for many, many years, the design of Robby the Robot being just one of many things from this film that has been referenced or parodied in countless shows, movies and games I’ve experienced over the years. Turns out, after all this unintentional waiting, that the film is just a really good sci-fi story even now. Amazing effects for the time, a talented cast, and an interesting central plot, it’s only a slow middle that really hurts this otherwise gem of a film. Let’s take a closer look!

You know, it was really hard to find a sci-fi movie for the 40s (especially as I’m saving the classic Universal monster movies for a much later marathon), I guess they had other things on their mind during a lot of the decade! Anyway, Man-Made Monster is where I’ve landed, a less talked about and obviously far less iconic Universal movie, but one that ticks all the boxes for what you want out of them. Let’s take a look!